


Festive Colors

by IreneSpring



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Congresswoman Alex Cabot, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Prompt Fic, Surprises, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-19 00:22:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29742159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IreneSpring/pseuds/IreneSpring
Summary: Alex and Noah work together to surprise Olivia on Valentine's Day.Prompt: "Why is everything pink?"
Relationships: Olivia Benson/Alexandra Cabot
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	Festive Colors

**Author's Note:**

> We have reached the end of this challenge. I'm feeling pretty accomplished. 
> 
> Side note: this one, specifically the Congresswoman Alex Cabot part, might be confusing if you haven't read "Scenes from Forlini's." This isn't a politics AU or anything, it's just that in the universe I've created Alex never goes vigilante, and instead takes a job as an AUSA in season 13 and runs for Congress in mid-season 18.

Olivia takes one last look at the Happy Valentine’s Day gif Alex had texted her that morning and shuts off her phone. Reaching for her keys, she realizes that this is the first Valentine’s Day she’s come home to an empty apartment since Alex returned to SVU. 

She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t disappointed. She knows Alex has important work to do. The budget needs passing and the fallout from the election needs to be dealt with and all of that trumps a relatively meaningless, overly commercialized holiday. Still. Technically, Congress was in recess starting yesterday.  _ The work of the people is never done _ , Alex had said, jokingly and repeatedly, every time she got called away.

This is the first time Olivia has been on the receiving end of work-related plan death. It sucks. She can see why so many of her partners left her. But Olivia is a big girl and this isn’t a new relationship that has her waiting by the phone. This is her wife. And she had plenty of advanced notice.

She’s almost got the door unlocked when she hears movement coming from inside the house. That’s odd. Noah is still at school and Alex is in Washington. Reaching for her gun, Olivia closes her eyes for a moment.  _ It’s not William Lewis. He’s dead.  _ Her heart beats quickly as she carefully opens the door. When no one ambushes her, she takes a deep breath. She walks farther into the apartment and is bombarded by an aggressive wall of color.

Pink streamers hang from the doorway, pink heart-shaped balloons are bouncing along the ceiling and large pieces of paper with crudely drawn pink hearts line the walls. She smells roses. Probably pink roses, if she had to guess. 

“Surprise, Mama!” Noah runs into the room and Olivia immediately scoops him into her arms.

“Hi, Sweetheart! How are you here? Why is everything pink?”

“Because I figured it would be fitting, given the holiday.” Olivia whirls around, and there, standing in a pink blouse with a (pink, she guessed it) rose tucked behind her ear, is Alex. Olivia immediately sets Noah down and runs to her, wrapping her arms around her neck and kissing her passionately. At a disgruntled “ew” from Noah, Olivia pulls back slightly, but doesn’t go far, instead pecking Alex on the lips repeatedly.

“One of these days,” Olivia says between kisses, “you will learn how to text me,” she reaches up to cup Alex’s cheek, “before you show up somewhere.”

“It was supposed to be a surprise. I practically had to sell my soul to the local news so that they wouldn’t print that I was coming home early.”

“Well, for a minute there, I thought you were an intruder. I heard you through the door.” Alex immediately looks guilty, twirling a piece of her hair between her fingers and looking at the ground.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t think about that.”

“Don’t worry. This is definitely nice. I wasn’t expecting to see you for another two days.”

“Well, I cashed in some favors. I got in early this morning. I picked up Noah from school, and we set all this up.”

“It’s very… monochrome.”

“Noah picked out the colors. I tried my best to get him to add some red, but my efforts were fruitless.”

“It looks better with just the pink,” Noah insists. Then he looks down at his feet. “Maybe I should have added some red.” Olivia feels a flash of concern but just smiles and looks around the room again.

“You know what, you’re right. I like the pink. It’s very festive.”

“Yeah! It’s festive. Like when we have a tree on Christmas, but for Valentine’s Day,” Noah says happily, his worry disappearing. 

“Exactly.”

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Olivia says, resting her head on Alex’s shoulder after putting Noah to bed.

“Well I have better control over hours now. I’m not some overworked civil servant,” Alex muses, kissing Olivia’s temple. 

“Aren’t you though?”

“Well, technically,” Alex admits, rolling her eyes. “But I have more power now.”

“That’s a nice image,” Olivia says. “You, cashing in your favors, strong-arming middling Congressmen just to get home to me.”

“There are very few things I wouldn’t do for you.” Alex kisses her, but neither of them are in a rush to do anything more. Between Alex in Washington and Olivia’s incoming promotion, work has dominated their lives, but now it’s just them.

“Do you think it would make me sound like I’m 75 if I tell you that I’m happy to do just this for the rest of the night?” Olivia asks when they part. 

“Well, no. At least it will make you sound a lot less old than when I had to ask one of my interns why TikTok kept rejecting the ten minute videos I was trying to post.”

“You have a TikTok account?”

“My coms people insist that it’s how all the savvy Congresspeople are communicating with the youths these days.”

“‘Youths these days,’” Olivia scoffs. “Are you sure you’re not over retirement age?”

“Now you sound like my intern.”

“Could be a fun roleplay.”

“I just got home, please don’t make me get on another plane just to escape you.”

“Fair enough.” Olivia sigh contentedly before something occurs to her. “What did you have to promise the local news so they wouldn’t spoil the surprise?”

“Well, some of my associates in the Judiciary Committee and I are planning to introduce legislation that would increase funding for public defenders and ensure that immigrant children have access to legal counsel for their immigration court hearings.”

“...They don’t have that now?”

“No. One of the people I got a statement from used to work for immigration courts in Texas and says he’s seen children as young as two have to essentially serve as their own defense.”

“Well, yeah, you should fix that. So what are you giving the journalists?”

“I got the bill’s author to commit to giving them an exclusive interview. I’m just a co-sponsor, and a national story like that will help their paper.”

“You swindled your colleagues for me,” Olivia says happily.

“Of course.”

“And you’re increasing public funding for defense attorneys,” Olivia continues.

“Don’t start,” Alex mutters. “They’re insanely underfunded. I could give you statistics but I’m jet lagged. Not to mention it’s Valentine’s Day and I don’t think it’ll set the mood.”

“I’m not saying anything. Our ADA might have an issue with it though.”

“Tell Stone that if he doesn’t like it he can run against me in the next election.”

“I should, if only to see you destroy him.”

“I don’t know, he’s white and rich with a good family name.”

“If he threatens you, I’ll destroy him,” Olivia says seriously. 

“Okay, calm down,” Alex says with a laugh. “I’m just joking. My seat is safe, I’m here with you… Everything’s perfect.”

“I guess that’s why I don’t trust it. I feel like something should be off.”

“Welcome to anxiety. First time?”

“Ha ha.”

“Seriously, Liv. I know the feeling. But let’s just stay on the couch and see if we can enjoy this for at least another twenty minutes, okay?”

“That sounds doable,” Olivia says as she snuggles closer.

**Author's Note:**

> As if Alex would only celebrate Valentine's Day with a gif. She isn't an amateur. 
> 
> Future fic plans: Honestly kind of up in the air. I have an idea for a Black Mirror AU (based on the episode "Hang the DJ") but other than that I don't have any confirmed plans for Cabenson (I have a Passover Jewish Rafael fic for Barisi scheduled). However, that doesn't mean I don't want to/won't be able to write anything. If you have any ideas/prompts, I'd be more than happy to look at them, and dialogue prompts mean that I'll probably be able to do a story around this length. I'll still be checking my notifications, so if you have any suggestions later feel free to comment.
> 
> Thanks so much for reading!


End file.
